Month: February 2018

Environmental, social and ethical pressures on the global textiles and fashion sector emerged in Europe in the early 1980s. The main driver was consumer concern over the safety of the materials. However, in parallel with this trend, a minority group of ethical consumers demanded chemical-free and low environmental impact clothing and fashion goods. This resulted in the European and later the U.S. organic labeling system being extended to include criteria for clothing and textiles, such as organic cotton. As of 2007, the sector was the fastest growing part of the global cotton industry with growth of more than 50% a year. Regarding safety standards, the Oeko-Tex standard has become highly popular in the industry. Although unknown to consumers, it tests for chemicals such as flame retardants in clothes and categorizes goods according to their likely exposure to humans (e.g. baby clothes must adhere to the strictest standards for chemicals). Thus the issue of chemicals in clothing has become largely one of liability risk control for the industry with the consumers obviously expecting products to pose no risk to their health. Organic and eco fashion and textiles attracts a far smaller, but fast growing group of consumers, largely in Western Europe and Coastal U.S.

Of far greater concern to the global fashion sector is the issue of worker welfare. The issue was highlighted by pressure groups such as
Global Exchange in the U.S. targeting Levis and Nike and others.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s anecdotal evidence began emerging from labor activists in the U.S. and Europe concerning the supply chains and overseas factories of leading U.S. and European multinationals. A key target was the world’s leading maker of denim jeans Levi Strauss, but more significantly Nike, the world’s largest sports shoe marketing firm. Global Exchange launched its Nike Anti Sweatshop campaign, focusing on the firms sourcing in China and Indonesia.

A good deal of negotiations and stakeholder meetings led to a generally accepted code of practice for labor management in developing countries acceptable to most parties involved. The SA 8000 emerged as the leading industry driven voluntary standard on worker welfare issues. SA 8000 supporters now include the GAP, TNT and others and SAI reports that as of 2008, almost 1 million workers in 1,700 facilities have achieved SA 8000 certification. The Fair Trade movement has also had a significant impact on the fashion business. The standard combines a number of ethical issues of potential concern to consumers environmental factors, fair treatment of developing country suppliers and worker welfare. The Fair Trade label has show explosive growth.

Albeit on a very small scale and not always at the top end of the fashion industry, many niche brands have emerged which promote themselves primarily on sustainability grounds. People Tree in the UK states that it creates Fair Trade and organic clothing and accessories by forming lasting partnerships with Fair Trade, organic producers in developing countries. Leading fashion journal Marie Claire ranked its top 10 eco brands in a recent issue. The key issues remain chemicals in clothing (certified by organic and Fair Trade labels), worker treatment (certified by SA 8000 and Fair Trade) and increasingly mainstream environmental issues such as climate change. The worlds largest fashion brand Louis Vuitton recently acquired a small eco fashion label. It is clear, however, from the example of Nike and Levis, that certain issues are here to stay, such as a demand by Western consumers that leading brands manage the issue of worker welfare in their supply chain properly.

As a famous fashion designer said, -Fashion is made to become unfashionable-. Most fashions don’t have much life; they are short-lived and meant to fade away in no time. It doesn’t mean fashion has fewer takers or less demand. In a country like India, with its diversified culture and fashion statements, the demand for fashionistas is ever growing. With traditional business houses looking for professionals with industry-specific qualifications in fashion designing, the popularity for such courses is definitely rising. Bangalore is viewed as one of the fashion hubs of India, not far behind Mumbai or Delhi when it comes to keeping pace with the latest trends and fashion. This coupled with its distinction of being the educational hub of the country, makes Bangalore the perfect place for fashion institutions to grow and evolve. The city’s culture has always been that of trendy and moving in tandem with the fashion definitions of the rest of the world. From textile designing to footwear and jewellery designing, there are a number of institutions offering varied courses in fashion designing in Bangalore. Courses like Fashion and Apparel Designing, Footwear Designing and Production Management, Fashion merchandising and retail, Interior Designing, Accessory Designing, Textile Designing and Jewellery Designing have many takers as these courses have greater value in the job market as well. There are different levels of courses in fashion designing such as certification, diploma, graduation, and post-graduation. Fashion Design – (Diploma, B.Sc, M.Sc) This programme aims to give the student an overall picture about fashion industry. It covers a great deal about fashion, textile, designing, production, and marketing. From designing to the manufacturing of a product, the course will help a student explore the fashion industry in a snapshot. Accessory Design The programme will take a student through all the aspects involved in accessory design. This involves the entire spectrum of accessories and lifestyle products, jewellery, leather goods, footwear, watches, silverware, other lifestyle products etc. This is an emerging field of study. Fashion Management (MA) This course basically helps one understand the nuances of fashion management. It helps a student develop managerial skills in the field of fashion marketing, merchandising and retailing. Students are taught innovative fashion management techniques, fashion trends and business practices. Textile Design (B.Sc) This programme explores the processes involved mainly in apparel and home fashion industry. The aim of the course is to equip students with qualities required to meet the challenges in the emerging textile market and give them industry-specific training. Fashion and Communication Comparatively recent, it is one of the most innovative programmes aimed at exploring the vast possibilities of communication in fashion industry. It covers areas such as display design, graphic design, fashion journalism, styling, photography, advertising and public relations.

Besides these, there are a number of other innovative and exciting fashion design courses – both short and long term – offered by prestigious institutions in Bangalore. Some of them are: MBA in Fashion Merchandising and Retail Management, Bachelor of Design (Knitwear Design), Diploma in Computer Aided Textile Designing, Degree Program in Fashion and Apparel Designing, Fashion Design & Boutique Management, Garment Manufacturing Technology, Graduate Diploma in Jewellery Designing & Manufacture, Diploma in Interior Design and Decoration, Certification in Grooming Lifestyle and Modelling.

China’s fashion jewelry market after a few short years time by a few years ago, has accounted for only 1% of the world in the forefront of the world, after the United States and Japan. In 2005 China’s total sales of jewellery market about 140 billion yuan, 5.49 billion of export sales, in the front row, the gold output reached 225 tons, silver amounted to 6000 tons, ranked fourth in the world and the third. In 2006, with the development of China’s economy, people’s consumption level, the fashion jewellery is become the housing, Wholesale Fashion Jewelrycars after China people’s third largest consumption hotspot. And by 2007, the market more prosperous, according to the ministry of commerce of the key enterprise of flow data show that the monitoring 2007 1 to 5 month of gold and silver jewelry consumption than the same period in 2006, the accumulative increase 34.6%, is 28 categories of goods monitoring the fastest growing goods.

In addition, August 2007 national gold and silver jewelry consumption jumped 53%. In the third quarter of 2008 gold demand is strong, up to us $31.8 billion, including investment demand a 51% increase over 2007. It is estimated that by 2010, China’s jewelry years total sales more than 200 billion yuan, exports more than us $7 billion, is expected to become the global fashion jewelry processing and consumption center, and will become one of the world trade center. One of the jewelry 2009 years is a jewelry industry will fittings of the year, the jeweler if “love for”, that is definitely an advantage-when people started to cut the budget to buy clothes, they may take some extra money to consider accessories, in order to increase the old car, and new, Fashion Jewelrypeople like existence feeling strong thing, best are more wide belt, big-outline model shoes and handbags, this is the large capacity new fashion world.

The fashion jewellery in recent years China has become the world a few fashion jewelry ornaments spending more than 10 billion dollars in one of the countries. Mainland China consumer groups huge, the four fashionable and Tokyo, Hong Kong and other cities act the role of article years total trade nearly 100 billion us dollars, but Chinese women adorn article per capita share of less than 5% is a huge market potential, visible. For a time, China fashion jewelry market consumption growth will depend mainly on the wedding, diamond consumption and overseas tourists consumption demand to drive the three. In addition, the every year 10 million couples hoping for the consumption of the marriage produced as high as 250 billion yuan. Especially the birth rate as high as 21% of the eighty s was born group will from 2007 to 2012 years or so into the marriage age, only the wedding jewelry consumption is good prospects. The fashion jewellery is to take the lead in international open one of the industry.

Jewelry
Ancient Greeks had an affinity for earrings, bracelets, necklaces, brooches, and rings, made of metal and semiprecious stones. Precious metals were also used, but gold became popular only in the 6th century BC.

Jewelry evolved over time. During the Archaic period, jewelry pieces were simple and mainly functional. Such were the pins or brooches used to fasten the himation or the chiton, or the seal rings used to seal letters and important documents. By Hellenistic times goldsmiths had mastered their craft and jewelry featured an exquisite design and composition.

Footwear
The sandals were the common footwear for both men and women. The Greek sandal featured several straps, which stretched between the toes to the ankle in various fashions. They were minimal, light, and left the foot almost bare. Although high heels are considered to be a 16thcentury invention, already in ancient Greece women tried to make themselves taller by attaching cork sole to the leather sole. For travel or warfare, men wore fitted shoes – ankle-high or mid-calf length -and boots that either laced up or stayed on the foot with the help of a criss-cross thong at the toe.

Hats and head-dresses
Headgear came in different shapes and styles. There were several variations of a cone-shaped hat. The bonnet was another known style. The pilos was a brimless skull cap made from felt or wool. Women wore scarves, wrapped around the head. The saccus featured a tassel at the back as well as nets or snoods to hold the hair back. The petasos was made of woven straw. It featured a brim that could be turned up or down, and could also be fastened at the neck by a ribbon.

Hair styles
Hair styles for men and women were initially similar. In the early ages men wore their hair fussy with curls forming a crown around the forehead or braids wound around the head. But styles eventually were simplified and long hair became acceptable only for the elderly male, young men or boys.

Hair styles were known by names: the kepos was unkempt, the Hectorean style involved cutting and combing the hair backward into curls, and the Theseid featured strands of hair worn short at the forehead while the rest hung down longer at the back of the neck.

Young girls let their hair fall freely. Older women wore their hair long and let it fall loose over the shoulders. They could also wear their hair parted in the middle, waved, and scraped back so as to expose the ears. Sometimes, three or four strands, or spiral curls, were sectioned from the rest of the hair and styled so they hung down over the forehead while the rest of the hair hung down loosely at the back. Bands, ribbons, diadems, or strings of pearls added sophistication to hairdos.

Beauty and grooming
Make-up was used by most women. It consisted in applying a white base color to the face, rouge to the cheekbones, and painting one’s lips. The base color was often made of lead, which could have fatal consequences, while the rouge was made from vermilion or vegetables. Women would also use eye make-up, which involved Egyptian kohl and shadows in different colors. Eyebrows were groomed and, painted black.

Perfumes were very popular, especially the essences of violet, mint, myrrh, marjoram, and thyme. The Greeks often applied different scents to different body areas.

Women conditioned their skin on a daily basis, used depilatories to remove body hair, and used different concoctions on both their face and body.

Good physical shape was important for both sexes, although only men were allowed in the palestra – a complex devoted to exercise.

When thinking about hippie fashion 1 must appear at the evolution of the statements made by it over the final various decades. What was originally a statement against corporate America, hippie clothing has turn out to be corporate America in modern day times. On the other hand, the statements of the 60s can still be valid.

Evolving out of the Beatnik movement of the 50s, the teens and young adults between the ages of 15 and 25 within the 60s led a counter culture revolution against all the traditions they knew. On every front society was assaulted by hippie ideals. The clothes they wore helped to unite them and make them stronger. Nowadays these identical clothes announce that quite a few of their concepts have grow to be mainstream, having been accepted in big portion by the populace of America.

The 1960s fashions and values had a lasting impact on culture, influenced music, tv, cinema, literature, as well as the arts in numerous methods. Now assimilated into our society, we see things like alternative arts, street theatre, folk music, and psychedelic rock as classics from the hippie era.

We see other signs also, like well being food shops, music festivals, and relaxed sexual mores.

These bohemians produced key efforts to impact change which we see everywhere. They attempted to express themselves by way of protests and new approaches of communicating. They attempted to apply their vision of the world and life to everything around them.

Hippie fashion history is noted as being probably the most violent and radical shift in style in modern day times. The style look was aspect of a protest waged against capitalism. Due to this they had been determined not to purchase style from the designers who were making revenue off of it. They chose very simple clothing, or repurposed clothes they could get low cost at second hand shops. Partly due to the fact they were purists and partly because capitalism included middle men, they chose a lot more natural form fibers, like cotton and wool. They produced their personal clothes also, sewing and crafting from braided hippie headbands to knit and crochet vests.

These hippie clothes became style statements against all these items and quite a few more, undoubtedly against the war.

The hippie dress, skirt and pants made of patchwork also became a part of the statement mainly because it was repurposing material and fabric, reusing it as opposed to putting far more cash inside the wallet of The Man, corporate America.

Now these clothes are aspect of the hippie costumes that speak of the 60s fashion weve come to associate with freedom, and rebellion.

In case you desire to learn more about hippie fashion, look at some hippie photos. Youll see a pattern that contains patchwork, bell bottom jeans, embroidered shirts and skirts, wrap around skirts, all kinds of issues made of blue jeans, tie dye everything, headbands, glasses, vests and more.

The hippie fashion was mostly unisex. Each men and ladies wore their hair lengthy. And women stopped wearing makeup. Womens dresses were loose, had low necklines and had been extremely short.

Quite a few of the hippie fashions had been borrowed from other cultures, but they’ve had lasting impact on our culture. They may be made of hemp now, and the meanings might have changed, but the style is still in place.